seedling
by incense-whiskers
Summary: jaken did not like this girl with the shard glow and the serrated attitude./ challenge one-shot, see the author's note.


_**Disclaimer:**I do not own the canon, I merely enjoy it. I also do not own the "seed" story, this was a request. _

_**Starring:** Jaken, Toph_

_**Author's Note:** By request, a very nice one, I am writing this piece. The starter piece is called "Seed" and it is by A shade of grey91. I suggest you start there to avoid getting confused. Also, my InuYasha stuff might be off, I have not watched or read anything of it in a very long time. Like, since grade nine (what, five years ago?). The instructions for the stories were pretty vague but I've picked a confrontation with Jaken and Toph because really, Toph has such a limited tolerance for inept individuals._

_**Summary: **Jaken did not like this girl with the shard glow and the serrated attitude._

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* * *

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"Jaken? I'm hungry."

"That is not my concern girl."

The child is silent for a minute before wandering away. Jaken prods the fire a little more and watches the eastern horizon restlessly. His Lord and the Girl had been gone for most of the morning, hoping to beat His Lord's brother to the pass here. If the mongrel half-breed had made it here already then they would have to take another route. The shard that resided in the Girl was too valuable of a bargaining tool to be wasted on the little troupe of fools.

The sun is high in the sky. Rin plays quietly in the shade and Jaken thinks poisonous thoughts while poking the camp fire.

"Jaken? When will we eat?"

"When our Lord returns."

The child wanders back into the shade. A cicada sings and the fire pops. Jaken studies his hands and wonders what has happened. He wonders if the Girl has attacked him and joined with the mongrel pack. Surely then the Girl would be vanquished.

"Jaken, I see him!" Rin cries suddenly, feet pounding the dust of the campsite into the air like lazy mist.

Alas, the small green clad figure with a shard glow follows him. It seems Jaken must cook for four still.

"Is the pass clear my Lord?" Jaken asks.

"It is. We will be moving out tonight." the demon replies, absently listening to Rin chatter about her morning.

"Might I ask what took you so long?" Jaken presses again, pulling out food from the packs and starting the meal.

"She wanted to spar." the master replies with a bored one shouldered shrug.

* * *

"My Lord! I am going to learn earth bending!" Rin crows, delighted. The shard-girl is lying in the grass with her hat tipped over her face. Jaken bends over his cooking pot and tries not to grind his teeth.

All that afternoon while Jaken cleans up and prepares for them all to move in the morning, Rin is learning the strange combat method of the shard-girl. While Rin was mildly disappointed that she could not move the ground itself, she is still an eager student. The master is stern, harsh and expects too much from a human child and Jaken mumbles under his breath.

He does not see the blind eyes narrow in his direction.

* * *

At nightfall when Rin is asleep in his Lord's arms and the fire is nothing but a bed of coals, Jaken stares at the conical tents of rock that the shard-girl created around her sleeping form. The stars are bright tonight and the heat of the day has given way to a chill wind that blows softly through the tall grass. A log cracks and as he turns to moniter it he sees the Girl wander out and away from camp. Intrigued by the possibility of a scandal Jaken rises and proceeds to follow her into the shrubbery outside of the camp's bounderies.

The dark of the night is deeper then he thought and he struggles to keep track of her. As a demon he is supposed to have superior senses but the Girl vanishes easily in the gloom.

"You're not very bright, are you?"

Jaken whirls around and finds her standing there, arms crossed and watching him with her empty eyes. He snarls quietly to himself.

"I mean, you don't understand very much."

"Do not speak to me that way human," he spits out. "You are only here by the grace of my Lord." To his disgust, Toph waves her hand around carelessly.

"Yes, yes. I know that's what you think. That his benevolence saved my hide and now I am indebted to him." she replies with a caustic air.

"How can you speak so carelessly about my Lord's mercy!" Jaken screeches at her with extended claws, only to find that he cannot move. She has sunken him into the ground, up to his knees and he never even noticed. She listens to him tug for a minute or two, hearing him gasp and wheeze before leaning in and jabbing him in the chest with a finger,

"You are replacable you know. You need to remember that," her face is as flat as her words and Jaken can do nothing but hear them. "I am waiting for my posse to come and get me and until then I'm travelling with you guys to get this thrice Spirits-damned shard out of me. Your Lord is a shrewd man, he understands checks and balances."

Jaken grinds his teeth and struggles to free himself. But the shard-girl isn't done.

"Your purpose is to serve. Why are you so resistant about it?" she asks darkly.

"You will not speak to me in this manner!" Jaken hisses. The girl with the demon smile laughs at him.

"You will serve humbly. You will protect Rin. You will stop being an idiot." she whispers heatedly.

"You do not have the authority. No orders from you are valid." he retorts, anger heating his insides like aged _sake_.

Toph's grin is predatory in the dark.


End file.
